


don't wanna keep secrets (just to keep you)

by nonamebut



Category: NCT (Band), 여자친구 | GFriend (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Magic, Chaebol au, Gen, Jackson Wang party, and other nct and gfriend members, lots of 98liner cameos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-10-19 05:08:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20651699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nonamebut/pseuds/nonamebut
Summary: There's something really depressing about being the last one to know that your long time best friend... has had anot so secretlong time boyfriend.— Written forParty of Destiny





	don't wanna keep secrets (just to keep you)

Friday nights are usually reserved for a well deserved movie marathon, complete with fairy smores and some of Uncle Minseok's (_non_ alcoholic) concoction of the week. They're for catching up after a long period of stress and school work, whispers traded under layers of charmed quilts.

For people like Yewon and Jungwoo, Friday nights aren't meant for getting drunk and stumbling onto the snap stories of strangers they barely know. They're responsible kids, with a family name to protect and a scholarship to maintain, respectively. They know better than that.

So when the day that the two actually end up attending a party—a _Jackson_ party, for crying out loud—finally comes, Yewon is more than disappointed. Because she for sure does not want to be here, to be associated with these people.

No, she's only here because of that stupid video Eunbi showed her almost an hour ago: a blurry capture of Jackson's infamously enchanted dance floor, in which her best friend, probably drunk, was leaning in to kiss—to _kiss_—

Yewon doesn't care that Jungwoo's got himself a boyfriend.

Wait, no. That came out wrong. She's happy as long as he's happy, so he can date whoever he wants. But isn't this the kind of thing you tell your best friend? At least in passing? Especially if _he_ is who Jungwoo has been secretly dating?

Yewon would have been able to find a way to keep that video from going viral, from reaching certain influential people that should have never seen the clip at all—she could have gotten Eunha to help out, free of charge, and that girl is the most capable person they know when it comes to internet magic.

Yewon didn't even need to know _who_ the boyfriend was. (Alright, that's a lie. She would have needed to know the identity of whoever Jungwoo dated so she could appropriately stalk him and make sure he's perfect for her one and only best friend in the world, but you get what Yewon means, right?)

But no, Yewon is here, shivering and still in her internship uniform, glaring at the Wang estate.

She is, first and foremost, annoyed at Jungwoo who probably thought he was protecting her feelings by not telling her (total _idiot_, that boy is), then at Mark and Moonbin and Jungkook and Jiwon and pretty much every single one of her friends that knew and likely even helped Jungwoo meet up with his supposedly cool working boyfriend.

Plenty of vitriol left for Jungwoo's dumb boyfriend who Yewon can't even begin to rant about. Of all the people! (And of all people, he should be smart enough not to be caught on camera. Whyyyyyy.)

She even spares some frustration for Jackson, a senior who she's never even met but would likely invite her in anytime anyway, for hosting another stupid dumb party in the first place.

But if Yewon is being honest with herself, the person she is angriest at is probably herself.

There she is, standing cold and unhappy, the world's worst best friend. As much as she wishes Jungwoo had told her in the first place, she wishes that this whole situation, with the deception and drama, never happened even more.

—

The thing about trying to trace back where Yewon or Jungwoo may have misread something—or whatever it was that made their bond the way it is now—is that you're going to have to examine too many years worth of pinky promises and secret smiles.

Jungwoo and Yewon go way back. Not as far back as team GF, but way before Dahyun and Donghyun and the dance club members. Way before life complicated itself.

The two of them have been through a lot together, but to say that they could only stand as strong as they do now due to their friendship wouldn't be completely correct, either.

And maybe that's really the best place to begin.

Because Yewon, to put it simply, is born with a silver spoon in her mouth. With pretty eyes from her phoenix father, the sweet voice of her siren mother, and the smile that all the Kims that have come before her have worn to disarm even the coldest of night creatures. The magical blood that runs hot in her veins seals her fate as one of the only summer fairies born in the year of '98.

One could even say that Kim Yewon, for all intents and purposes, is a lot like a real life princess. Considering all that money and power and (literal) charm, she might as well be with how well and proper she has always conducted herself.

Always careful. Always kind. Always the picture perfect heir.

That's how Yewon's life went, a series of expectations that must always be met. Somewhere between it all, she found solace in music, a way to express herself and how she really felt. Then she met Sojung and Yuna and all the other girls, and while joining them wasn't exactly a smooth transition—she still remembers the way Eunbi kept staring at her, unmoved and uninterested—Yewon still had a support system of sorts, even if it was relatively secret.

Then one day, after begging her then stepbrother Doyoung to drive her back to that one particular cafe to meet up with her friends before school started again, she finally met Jungwoo.

There was an open mic that afternoon, and Yewon and her friends were all supposed to perform that acapella piece they've been working on for a couple of weeks now. Even Doyoung was going to do a little something, Yewon had learned as he drove them there.

(His eyes sparkled with a mischief she later wishes she had the foresight to really examine, to realize that this kindling passion would end up in him leaving Yewon alone to fend for herself, the lone Kim heir left to shoulder the legacy after estranging himself for good.

But for now they are still step siblings, and for now that is not exactly the story we're trying to tell.)

Yewon was sitting by the windows with Yerin when Jungwoo came up to sing. It was a little after Doyoung had performed and just before Yewon's group called dibs on the sequence.

The thing is—Yewon can't even remember what song that Jungwoo chose to sing but she'll always remember the way their eyes met across all those people, the way his voice lilted, as if he was a siren and Yewon was just a hapless sailor being led away from the shore.

Later, Yewon would learn that Jungwoo was not, in fact a siren. Yewon would also discover that when she opened her mouth to sing, Jungwoo had mistakenly thought she was the princess type of elf.

(To be fair, whenever Yewon sang, the birds always got a little excited. And maybe Jungwoo has always had an alluring vocal technique. But Yewon was of the fae and Jungwoo was the actual elf, so there was that.)

But before all of that and all of the misunderstandings that would hang over their friendship, Yewon had quickly ran to the makeshift stage before Jungwoo could walk away after his set.

It was the first time she had ever introduced herself as anything other than a Kim girl, the rarest kind of summer fairy, or a chaebol, untouchable.

To Jungwoo she was just Yewon. Has always been just Yewon.

—

Contrary to popular belief, Yewon actually does have friends. Yes, friends outside of Jungwoo and Eunbi and her team.

She's friendly and nice, or so she likes to think. Yewon just wants to keep out of trouble, so you can't blame her for being hesitant around those who might mess with the careful reputation Yewon has worked so endlessly to perfect.

This well known fact makes the people who recognize her as she enters the house gape a little before they approach her.

"Yewonie?!" Chanhee from choir club shakes her shoulders. A bunch of neon sparks fizzes off his hair; distantly, Yewon thinks he must have gotten Kevin to dye it for him before the party. "What are you doing here? Are you okay? Are you sick? Do you need anything?"

"Ahhh, I'm fine~" The sparks calm down in their intensity, now clinging properly to his hair with a gentle hum. Yewon can't help but giggle at how easily rattled the fellow fairy is.

She and Chanhee have never been particularly close—he's always been more of Jungwoo's friend, not hers—but she's grateful that one of the first friendly faces she sees is his. "Have you seen Jungwoo? I'm looking for him, actually..."

When Chanhee's face falls, she realizes that he's in on it all. Just how long has this whole thing been going? "I have. Listen, if you saw that thing on IG—"

"Yeah, I did." Yewon winces at her own bluntness. She's never usually like this. "My friends are working on taking the video down... and I'll see what I can do to make sure Jungwoo doesn't lose anything too major. I just want to know where he is so I can tell him myself."

Chanhee smiles weakly. "I see that." He gestures vaguely at Yewon, his eyes scanning her still flower braided hair and white summer dress. "You must have come straight from your intern work at one of the August meadows..."

He trails off awkwardly. Yewon starts to suspect that maybe she's not going to get any answers at all. Is she really giving off negative energy now, or something? Is her aura spiking too much?

She's pretty sure she's calmed down enough outside before she even gathered the courage to walk through the doors of the house party. Yewon has been told off one too many times—especially by Eunbi and her underclassman Donghyuck—for how frustrating her Leo intensity could get.

And in the first place, she wasn't even planning on yelling at Jungwoo or anything. She really does just need to talk to him about what she's going to tell her dad before the old man calls up their school and does anything out of line.

"Hey Yewon!" Her cousin, Juyeon from Lee Corporation, waves at her from across the room. She grins back at him, thinking that maybe she could get information out of someone who she actually associates with often, but Chanhee grabs at her wrist with a sudden urgency.

"Wait," he says, letting go when he realizes how tightly he was holding her. "He didn't mean to cause you trouble. You know he's always trying to repay you for your kindness, right? He just thought that he could spare you the worry and stress by working this all out by himself."

_But he doesn't have to do it alone_, Yewon wants to protest. _He's always got me._

The pained look in Chanhee's eyes makes Yewon hesitate. "Please. Just spare a little more patience... I think Jungwoo's got it under control this time, I promise."

Yewon thinks of how she could never relate to Jungwoo in the way Chanhee always has. Both of them break their backs as they scramble from one part time job to the next, downing too many cups of Jaemin's cursed caffeine concoctions between homework and house chores.

She thinks of how they always shy away from her rainbow binders and homemade lunchboxes, how they never fail to hide crumpled paper bills in her coat pockets when they can't avoid accepting even the smallest of favors.

You know. The kind of thing friends do, for the people they love.

"I just wish you guys didn't always think I did it out of pity," whispers Yewon. All of a sudden everything seems just a little bit blurry. "Do you guys think that I think that lowly of you?"

"Yewon, wait, no—"

Maybe stumbling away, away, away is a mistake, because then Yewon can't really focus well anymore, acting like a fool of a foal as her legs fumble, a myriad of colors swimming before her watery gaze before she realizes she's ran off in the direction of that cursed dance floor.

It immediately brings that cursed video to mind. (By how often Yewon internally labels the six second clip cursed, it might as well have been unintentionally enchanted by now, the spiteful feelings she directs towards it translating into some weird variant of a fairy curse. As much of a curse a good summer maiden can cast, at least.)

And so, all flustered and frustrated, Yewon takes her biggest L of the night and falls face first down onto Jackson Wang's wooden flooring.

This isn't how she's going down, (un)fortunately, so she takes a breath, gathers all her strength, and lifts herself up. She ignores what sounds like Chanhee's shout in the background in favor of waving Juyeon off before he hops down the speaker he's been perched on.

And so, all flustered and frustrated, she looks up from where she tripped, and in true kdrama style, just like the short one off skits on Youtube that Binnie secretly watches when he thinks Eunbi isn't looking over his shoulder—Yewon makes eye contact with the one person she's been wanting to see, the one person she only ever has love and support for, even now.

It's Kim Jungwoo, hand held tightly in Kim Doyoung's. His long time, super cool working boyfriend.

—

The other thing about trying to trace back where Yewon or Jungwoo may have misread something—or whatever it was that made their bond the way it is now—is that there's always going to be another story that no one is ever going to tell.

Jungwoo's own truth goes a lot like this: he is also born into a Kim family, except this one is dirt poor and riddled with angry, violent blood. He is the first princess type elf in generations, as well as the first ever son. There's not so much a legacy to fulfill but a survival rate to defeat.

People like him rarely make it.

There are many factors that enable such a low expectation, but it is first and foremost the fault of their family name. The Kim family is victim to the remnants of an actual curse, the magic bounding back with strength and vengeance every few years to bring unfortune and undoing.

It goes so far back that no one knows the instance of origin anymore, so no one has bothered to attempt to lift the hex at all.

There is also the simple fact of life dictating that elves are harbingers of mischief—to the point that they even bring such unpredictability unto themselves, their families, albeit unintentionally. One could safely argue that everything really is just stacked up against Jungwoo, his rare, powerful princess type status be damned.

All that potential doesn't matter. Nothing else to do but accept the cards life has been played. Nothing else but to live the best life you can muster, when you're born to lose.

But Jungwoo has always seen it like this: living in the outskirts of a society where power is a mark of money and good genes, the Kims may have no other option but to let their bad blood dry and die out in the dirt.

That is, they have no other option, if they do not plan on fighting the fate that compels them.

In reality, Jungwoo grows up with more love and support than he can hold in his body. They aren't well off, but they are at least rich in affection, forever loyal to their own. His mother refuses to be angry, and his father despises the very notion of treating his children the way his parents had treated him.

Jungwoo would later believed that he had relied on his family too much growing up, always turning to them, always asking for their help. But for a long while he stays their baby who cries too easily and gives up just as quick.

For a long while Jungwoo lives his life this way, unaware.

That is, until something special happens, in which Jungwoo learns about fate, and how he can compel to his own wills.

The thing is that the story—Yewon's or Jungwoo's, it doesn't matter—also goes like this: Jungwoo is tired yet restless after another low paying shift, and stumbles across a cafe along the way home.

Even though his throat hurts from all the yelling he had to do at the docks, there's a part of him that wants to unwind, to relax where nobody knows him.

Inside the cafe he finds there are kind people, lots of chairs for him to sit on, and that there is an open mic.

But most importantly, singing of waking up to dreams and sleeping away the unfair reality of life—there is also a boy.

—

Yewon and Jungwoo stare at each other awkwardly. It really is a lot like those guilty pleasure dramas that Yewon sometimes lets herself watch with Binnie. They hold each other's gaze for so long it almost feels like the orchestral version of the official OST of their lives has started swelling in the background.

Actually, wait, no. Something really is swelling in the background. Yewon glares at the glowing dance tile, annoyed at how even the dumb floor seems to pick up on the weird energy that's been buzzing between her and her best friend.

(Jackson must have done quite a number on it if the enchanted floor can play more than one song at once, with the tiles closest to Yewon playing what she belatedly recognizes as an EXO Chen song, the tiles farther out still vibrating to hip party beats for the people dancing to jam out to.)

"Wooaahhh, Yewon, is that you? Are you alright?"

Yewon could almost cry in relief. She finally breaks off the staring contest she's been holding with Jungwoo and finds an outstretched hand, fingers wiggling at her face.

"Thanks Minho," says Yewon as she allows herself to be pulled up. "Good to see you again."

It really has been a while since she's seen the cat boy. Last time she caught up with him, he was still fake dating Dahyun, all for their joint attempt to get some upperclassmen's attention.

And quite literally speaking of the devil herself, Dahyun waves bashfully as she steps from behind Minho. Yewon tries not to blush when she sees their tails intertwined in each other's, the fluffy cat tail dwarfing the forked devil whip.

"You guys are still going at it, huh?" Yewon asks good naturedly, turning her body in the direction of the two fake love birds in hopes that Doyoung will get the message. If Yewon is being honest herself, she's only just barely ready to face her best friend, much less the step brother she used to know.

Either Minho has great sense on his own or his three quarters feline heritage makes him more sensitive, because then he notices who she's trying to avoid and makes a subtle effort to help block the way. "Tell me about it. At this point I think they're too dense to even properly get jealous."

"We were thinking of even doing a super dramatic fight to see if they would do anything about it." Taking one of Yewon's hands to pull her closer, it seems that the other girl has caught on as well. "What are your thoughts?"

"You want my actual opinion? I think you guys should just fake break up." Minho's eye twitches and Yewon realizes too late that it's not because of her frank tone. "Honesty is the best..."

Yewon doesn't need to look back to know who's tapping her shoulder. The expression on her face must give too much away, because Dahyun's hand tightens in her grip.

"Dahyun, Minho, could we borrow Yewon for a few seconds?" Jungwoo's voice surprises Yewon in it's... intensity, it's sureness. She doesn't think she's ever heard him speak in such an absolute way.

Usually, it's just Yewon that uses her rich kid tone, as Jungwoo sometimes likes to mumble under his breath. Yewon always just thought that Jungwoo could use more courage, more bravado.

No one says anything for a while. Not even Doyoung, which is... interesting, to say the least.

Minho looks like he's about to speak up and say something really left field—something perhaps even a tiny bit idiotic, knowing him—if only just to liven up the atmosphere when Dahyun suddenly snaps.

"Hey." Dahyun is uncharacteristically harsh as she glares past Yewon's shoulder. A little behind all of them, hanging by one of the musty cupid seats, is some underclassman sheepishly putting down his phone. "If you put any of that online," says the devil, her eyes flashing in warning, "I will actually hunt you down and come for you."

When the unknown kid scuttles away—quite literally, as when he had turned around he flashed a nice nude view of his home shell as his legs crab walked him away—all of them sigh in relief.

"Thank God for that seventh sense of yours, Dahyun," Yewon turns to the girl almost excitedly. "I owe you one."

Dahyun giggles. "Don't thank God, thank me."

"Ah, right. Nice one, Satan."

Doyoung clears his throat then, and Yewon can't stall anymore.

She has to do what she came here to do. No take backs.

But Yewon still finds it hard to make eye contact, despite having searched for Jungwoo all night. She hates how Doyoung has somehow made her... afraid?

"I'm going to go get some fresh air." She throws an apologetic smile at Dahyun, gives a quick nod at Minho, who is now being approached and petted by a bunch of drunk senior students, for some reason. "See you guys later."

Yewon doesn't know if Jungwoo not following her out right away will prove to be a good or bad thing, but she does know that she needs to calm down if she's going to settle this once and for all.

—

There's one more thing you need to know if you're trying to trace back where Yewon or Jungwoo may have misread something—or whatever it was that made their bond the way it is now. It's the common denominator, if you will.

Kim Doyoung, much like Yewon, is born to excel, to succeed, to win. He's got everything going for him: the looks, the money, the power and intellect to match. Doyoung is the most text book siren you can find in the modern day: alluring and confident and sure to bring you in over your head.

He's two years older than the two of them, and he knew Yewon first by virtue of their parents marrying in the biggest merger of 2014. Jungwoo came after, but he loved the both of them equally, even if it wasn't exactly in the same way. And for a while, their company was really all that mattered, all that got him through the day.

The thing about Kim Doyoung is that he has never bowed his head down like Yewon always has, the way she always follows their parents, her fate, so dutifully. Doyoung has never known the struggle Jungwoo has experienced his entire life, Jungwoo's own blood rebelling against him in a never ending internal battle.

But Doyoung has always liked music, and the way it frees him. He's seen how music can free him, and Yewon, and Jungwoo, and honestly anyone else. If they only just stopped to listen.

And that's really all there is to it, really. Why he did what he did, the way he did it. Why he chose to leave everything behind to start anew all by himself, his strong spirit powering him through living alone and building a new name for himself now that he's been effectively been disowned.

Now that he's embarrassed his family for following his dreams, for pursuing what he really wants.

It's selfish and prideful, that much Doyoung can admit. But he'd rather have hubris as his mortal sin, instead of dishonesty or inaction.

The one thing that can make Doyoung regret everything is the same thing that kept him captive, what had originally trapped him in his destiny to become another cornerstone of the KIM Group.

The only two people in the entire world that could help him get through anything: Kim Yewon and her heart that gave too much, and Kim Jungwoo and his heart that accepted too little.

Even now, after breaking them all apart, Doyoung aches for them. For what they used to be, and what they could be, still.

—

Maybe it's cowardly, maybe it's not a very appropriately Kim Yewon thing to do, but she still does it anyway. She still storms out of the house, not bothering to see if anyone had followed her. She makes herself walk for a minute or so, following the trail of fancy cars parked just for the big banger Jackson party.

Yewon hazards a quick look behind her to see that Jungwoo is, indeed, following quietly behind her, a distance away. When they meet eyes this time, Jungwoo tries for a small smile.

Doyoung isn't with him. Yewon feels herself smile back.

Turning back in front of her, she starts to decide that stopping here and waiting for Jungwoo would be just fine. Then a familiar voice from her right calls out for her. "Yewon? Are you okay?"

Yewon yelps. "Jisunie?"

Roh Jisun from high school waves weakly from where she's sitting atop the hood of her car. Yewon feels like she's waiting for someone, but she doesn't have the heart to ask who. It must be someone important, if someone like Jisun is willing to camp out in the cold for them.

"Hey. It's been a while." The two of them have never been particularly close, or so Yewon likes to think. Jisun has always seemed unmoved by all of Yewon's attempts to befriend her.

So when Jisun makes the offer, asking Yewon if she wanted to talk to Jungwoo somewhere private—as in, in her _car_—it's either Yewon's perception of reality might not be as accurate as she believes, or Jisun's got a heart of gold.

Jisun doesn't wait for her answer in typical Roh fashion. "Heads up!" She throws her keys Yewon's way and hops off the hood without any other fanfare. "I'm going to head back inside and get a drink."

She gives Yewon a sad looking smile. "You can make it up for me by driving me home. I'm pretty sure we both came alone, so..."

Yewon's about to ask how she knew when Jisun pulls her phone out of her pocket, tilting the blinding screen in her direction. Yewon can't read it at all so she just trusts Jisun when she adds, "I saw that story with Jungwoo, and Eunbi messaged me about you."

Huh.

Just as Jungwoo finally catches up to their part of the street, Jisun starts to walk away. "You look awful, Kim," Jisun says, and she somehow manages to not make it sound unkind. "I hope things pan out well."

Jisun winks cheekily, and Yewon feels some of her magic transfer over to her. Yewon actually smiles, this time, feeling grateful for the gift, a burst of energy and encouragement.

"Yewon?" Jungwoo's voice pulls her gaze away.

This is it.

For a while, it's not _that_ awkward. Yewon tells Jungwoo that Eunha was working on taking down all the videos that were spammed on the pigeon holes of all the relevant college admins. They get inside the car. Yewon asks if it's okay if Jungwoo lays low for a while. The car radio crackles to life.

Jose Mari Chan starts crooning in the background as Jungwoo takes a visible, shaky breath. Yewon lets herself glance at him through the car mirror and sees how nervous he must be.

"What I did really wasn't right, but Yewon..." She closes her eyes, bracing herself. "... I don't regret all of it."

Yewon bolts up in her seat so suddenly that the seat belt burns a little across her chest. She looks at Jungwoo, incredulous, and Jungwoo looks back, the same determined fire in his eyes that Yewon has always so admired.

"I'm sorry for never telling you... I never wanted to make it seem like I was sneaking around you..." Jungwoo sighs. "At the time, I just thought that I should shoulder the responsibility for my feelings by myself, for once."

The words bring Chanhee and the frustrated turn of his lips to Yewon's mind. She thinks of how unfair she must be, at times, with her expectations of others—of her expectations of how relationships are supposed to go.

(It's easy to forget that real life relationships are a two way street, when you grow up the way Yewon did. The way Yewon has only ever known what her parents wanted, how she still follows through without complaint.)

"Would you ever forgive me?" Jungwoo leans in real close to remove the seat belt that Yewon put on by autopilot. "Are we... or are we no longer friends?" _Are we no longer friends the way Doyoung hyung was blacklisted off everything your parents can touch? _

"I'm always going to forgive you," says Yewon quietly. Now able to move around more freely, she nudges her shoulder against Jungwoo's. "Of course, as long as you mean it, and you always do. You've never once... disappointed me. You're my best friend."

"Doyoung hyung always says you are too nice for your own good." The mention of the other boy makes Yewon wince; the pained movement doesn't go unnoticed. "I don't think it's bad. It's why I like you so much in the first place. But I just... I hope you know I've always appreciated what you've done for me. Maybe I never understood it then, but I get it now. You're just a kind girl, Yewon. You always meant what you did or said. It's not like I was charity work to you..."

And maybe, in Yewon's heart, there lingers dregs of frustration. Maybe there are still many things Jungwoo has struggled to convey, nervous knees shaking and eyes darting too much, without focus.

But here they are, squished together, blasting Jose Mari Chan tunes on a Friday night. Sharing more about themselves than they ever thought possible.

And maybe there are still many things they still need to talk about, but maybe they really will be okay. Maybe they're okay.

Yewon offers an open palm and Jungwoo takes it without hesitation, interlocking their fingers, a familiar pattern of warmth and skin. No amount of alcohol or drugs or _whatever_ it is they do at dumb parties can truly compare to the high Yewon feels during moments like these.

Friday nights are still theirs. In your face, Jackson Wang.

x x x x

**Author's Note:**

> this was supposed to have sakura and donghyun and more specific subplots (esp for jisun and juyeon!!!) but alas this is the extent of my current powers and free time ;u;
> 
> if you actually made it here i love you omg thank you so much for reading this work <3 i wrote it for [party of destiny](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/PartyOfDestiny), please consider giving the other fics a look too if you feel like reading a good ol jackson wang party fic.
> 
> have a great rest of the week!! <3


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